myspace

We've been telling you about NBC Universal and News Corp's new YouTube-esque video service for awhile now, and today The Hollywood Reporter has news that the service has added the following channels to its lineup:

• Fuel TV
• Sundance Channel
• Oxygen
• Speed

Every so often, MySpace will offer users the chance to gussy up their pages with special promotional images and backgrounds. Some, like myself, prefer doing it the old fashioned way and carrying large signs around the neighborhood telling everyone to see the new Transformers movie.

Comedians Tim and Eric (Tom Goes to the Mayor; Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!), however, don't care about Transformers, they care about Shrek the Third. That's right, not only have they changed the look of their MySpace page to honor the lovable ogre, they've also created a few videos to let people know the movie is coming out.

Reports are coming out that CBS has plans to syndicate much of its content through such Web portals as AOL (which owns TV Squad), Facebook, Last.fm and Joost.

Currently, CBS does offer some full episodes on its innertube site, and it also has a YouTube channel featuring short clips from various series. This new venture would allow folks on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace to embed the episodes on their profiles, and to even "personalize" the videos (though don't ask me what that means, exactly).

The new content will begin to appear on the aforementioned sites sometime this week. Personally, I'm happy to see more networks offering full episodes, and offering them through more than one venue. The YouTube clips are nice, but I think what viewers are clamoring for is a chance to see their favorite shows anytime they want. It would seem the networks are starting to figure this out.

You've all heard about the upcoming video-sharing site from NBC and News Corp. Well, now CNET has joined the venture and will be providing content for the new site. CNET, which also owns GameSpot.com and TV.com, will provide "thousands of clips" to the new service and also serve as a distributor. NBC and News Corp already have distribution deals with Yahoo, MySpace, MSN, Comcast and AOL (which owns TV Squad).

The site launches this summer with full TV episodes and more from close to twenty television networks and two movie studios.

I'm always in favor of more ways to view television programs, so I'm anxious to see how this new site turns out. I just hope they allow user comments like YouTube does, because if I can't read a comment from CyberMonkey56 in Sheboygan telling me "thjs showes is sucks!" it's just not worth my time.

• The sad David Hasselhoff burger video... this has got to be rock bottom, finally, right?
  
• Josh Henderson is asking his Myspace friends to help save his character on Desperate Housewives.
  
• What's so wrong with Katie Couric?

The Heroes controversy continues.

It has been reported that Thomas Dekker (who played Zach) and his management didn't want him to play a gay character, and that's why the character and the actor suddenly disappeared from the show. But now Dekker has said on his web site (horribly designed, and I can't find the posting) that it's absolutely untrue.

In fact, Dekker says that he has played a gay character three other times in his career, as a younger teen, and would have done it again. He says his leaving the show had nothing to do with the story arc for Zach, though he doesn't really get into why he did leave the show.

Producer Bryan Fuller said in an interview last month that Dekker left because the character was gay and they were going to explore that plot further in later episodes.

• Miss America helped America's Most Wanted bust online sexual predators, but now she's refusing to testify in court to put those predators in jail.
  
• It's a boy! A 13 year old boy! Chris Rock may be a daddy, again.
  
• Minisodes of classic TV shows -- impressive! But does anyone want to watch them?
  

If you've heard of Super Adventure Team, a short-lived MTV series featuring puppets a la Thunderbirds and Team America, you're a batter person than I, because I hadn't heard of it until recently, even though one of my favorite comedians of all time was behind it: Dana Gould, who would later go on to write for The Simpsons (he left the series last year).

Actor and comedian Matt Besser of Upright Citizens Brigade is producing a new broadband series for TBS.com, and he's looking for some pictures of sexy ladies to use in one of the episodes. Somebody writing on behalf of Besser, or perhaps Besser himself writing in the third person, has the details on his MySpace page. He's looking for "MySpace self portraits," those photos shot in just the right light and at just the right angle to make one appear far sexier than they do in real life. The pictures used will be part of a montage at the end of the episode.

Until Besser's new online series is launched, you should check out some of his prank work over on Prank.com, a site created by artist Joey Skaggs. The site was launched April 1, naturally.